Chapter 43

Fang Shaoyi parked his car downstairs. Yuan Ye smiled and tilted his head. “Want to sit for a bit upstairs?”

“Not today. You can head up and rest earlier,” Fang Shaoyi answered.

Yuan Ye didn’t say anything else. He nodded and made a noise of acknowledgment, then said, “I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,” Fang Shaoyi smiled and replied.

Fang Shaoyi only wiped the smile off his face after Yuan Ye headed upstairs. He gently furrowed his brows. Coincidentally, he received a call at this time. Fang Shaoyi put the call on speaker and drove away.

The first thing Yuan Ye did after getting back was head home – home to his parents’ place. He had been gone for about half a year without visiting. He unlocked the door with the key. The old lady jumped in shock upon seeing him. Yuan Ye hurriedly said, “Don’t panic, it’s me.”

“When’d you get back?” The old lady’s expression was pleasantly surprised. She pulled out a napkin and wiped her hands, then walked over and took the things Yuan Ye was carrying from him.

Yuan Ye reached out and embraced her before saying, “Today. Took an afternoon nap at home and headed over as soon as I woke up. Where’s the professor?”

“Professor went out to draw.” She patted Yuan Ye’s back, eyes curved into crescents. “You’ve gotten thinner. Truly, this time.”

“I know I’ve gotten thinner,” Yuan Ye said while laughing. “The food on set wasn’t tasty.”

Yuan Ye called his dad, asking, “Professor, where are you drawing? I’ll go pick you up when you’re done?”

“You’re back?” Professor Yuan inquired through the phone. “At home?”

“Ah,” Yuan Ye replied.

Professor Yuan said, “I don’t need you to pick me up. It’s just a five minute stroll back. You can wait at home.”

During dinner, his mom said that Shaoyi had visited twice in these past few days. Yuan Ye cocked an eyebrow. “He came over?”

“It’s not troublesome,” Yuan Ye laughed while shaking his head. “He’s used to it.”

Thus, Mom asked again, “So you guys have made up?”

Yuan Ye thought about it and answered, “Technically.”

Their family never discussed his relationship. In the beginning, when he was getting married, they had tried to stop him, but failed. After that, they never really brought it up again. Before getting divorced, Yuan Ye didn’t notify his family. Now, he and Fang Shaoyi were reconciling, but he still wasn’t saying anything. He was thirty-something. There was no need for them to be worrying about him anymore. He had long passed the age where he needed to start taking responsibility for his own life. He needed to deal with the consequences for all of his own decisions.

That day, Professor Yuan only told him, “Live in whatever way makes you happy. As long as you’re willing.”

Yuan Ye nodded and hummed before saying, “I know.”

Yuan Ye and Fang Shaoyi’s marriage was a bit different from the average marriage. He and Fang Shaoyi’s identities had been worlds apart when they had first gotten married. It could be said that their families had absolutely nothing in common. After marriage, their families basically never communicated with one another either. Even until right before their divorce, Yuan Ye hadn’t been able to call Fang Shaoyi’s parents “Dad” and “Mom” when he saw them. This feeling was too strange. He couldn’t say “Dad” and “Mom”, but calling them “Uncle” and “Auntie” also seemed inappropriate. They probably felt the same awkwardness when facing Yuan Ye. This was also related to Yuan Ye’s personality.

Fang Shaoyi was a lot more natural than him. These years, during periods where he wasn’t acting, he would often head home with Yuan Ye. He also had always called Yuan Ye’s parents “Dad” and “Mom”. When he was here, nobody could tell that he was a celebrity. He only looked like a normal, educated young man.

In this regard, Fang Shaoyi had done much better than Yuan Ye.

Yuan Ye stayed at home for one night. The next morning, as he was leaving, he called Fang Shaoyi. He said, “Yi ge.”

Fang Shaoyi made a noise of acknowledgment and asked him, “Where are you?”

“Back at my mom’s place.” Yuan Ye asked too, “You came over? What identity did you come over with, ge?”

Fang Shaoyi lowly chuckled and said, “Half a son, I guess.”

Yuan Ye laughed at him, “If my mom really asked you if we’re planning on getting remarried or not, would you feel awkward?”

“I’d deal with it,” Fang Shaoyi answered. “What else could I do?”

The two of them didn’t manage to see each other after this call. Yuan Ye went to Old Tu’s place to drink and eat meat. Fang Shaoyi stayed at his company, looking over a few contracts. In the afternoon, he also had an interview. All these years, Fang Shaoyi rarely showed up to charity events. His name couldn’t be found on the list of guests for the most common charity programs. However, he and Yuan Ye had actually continuously been donating to several different charity organizations and funds. Additionally, they weren’t stingy with their donations. Years ago, Yuan Ye would also occasionally head into the mountain districts with the charity volunteers. Each time he did, he would take many pictures. Later on, he stopped going almost entirely. His time had basically all become dedicated to Fang Shaoyi. The remaining time was needed for him to attend to his own business.

Today’s interview was because a certain charity project wanted to do a special episode on Fang Shaoyi. They had waited for several months for Fang Shaoyi to come back. Originally, they had wanted to interview Yuan Ye too, but this got rejected by Fang Shaoyi. Yuan Ye wouldn’t like filming this interview. Doing charity was a very private matter. Why did it always need to be discussed publicly? Some celebrities started public discussions to gain more traction and to attract more people to join the cause. This was understandable. However, in Yuan Ye’s eyes, certain people seemed like they were only doing things for appearance’s sake. They always needed to make it public knowledge when they did anything, which was extremely fake.

Yuan Ye drank alcohol at Old Tu’s restaurant. He and Old Tu hadn’t met up for over half a year. This person still looked the same; he hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Old Tu asked Yuan Ye what the current situation was. Regarding his relationship, Yuan Ye always kept his mouth shut. However, today, he surprisingly opened his mouth, which was extremely rare. He said, “Right now, I’m just molding and shaping. I need to fix myself up first, I guess.”

“Fix yourself up how?” Old Tu gazed at him. His expression was always slightly amused. He asked Yuan Ye, “A descaled fish?”

Yuan Ye burst into laughter. He lit a cigarette, then shook his head and said, “Not to that extent.”

It wasn’t that painful, and also not that exaggerated. But, he truly needed to change a bit. The balance between losses and gains was measured by oneself. Each individual had a scale in their own hearts. Yuan Ye had realized this long ago. He knew very clearly what he wanted. After understanding this, he stopped hesitating.

But sometimes, he still felt like his emotions were a bit spread out. Throwing away some of the things he had stood by for so many years made him feel slightly uncomfortable. Even lonely.

Prior to Yuan Ye’s departure from the film set, the director finally told him the truth. The meaning behind his words was that he had never actually wanted to add more screen time for He Sai. He wouldn’t edit that subplot into the final film. The director only revealed this bit of information after he had gotten drunk. Previously, Yuan Ye had never thought in this direction. Upon suddenly hearing this, he actually didn’t know how to respond.

Emotionally, he felt great. Blissful. Only looking at the end product, he was definitely satisfied. But looking back at the process, disregarding all the efforts He Sai and his team had put in, this entire procedure had been wrong. All the work the entire film crew had put in for all this time, including but not limited to the B group workers, the enormous amount of human and material resources, the scenes all the actors had to make up – some even had to return to set even after leaving – these were all built upon that subplot. If the director edited the subplot out, all of this work would be for naught. Filming for no reason wasn’t a big deal, but the director had known about this the whole time. The entire process had also proceeded in a way the director and a small group of people had wanted. This felt extremely wrong.

Those left in the dark had been wholeheartedly treating this newly added subplot, including Yuan Ye himself. Even though he wasn’t in charge of He Sai’s scenes, Yuan Ye still considered both plots when looking over all the other scenes. How to ensure that these two plotlines would be able to link together and merge? He needed to do his best to make each scene become the most useful version of itself, given the fact that the entire script had already veered off its original path. During this process, he even argued with the director everyday. The props team spent restless days and nights incessantly rushing out props, but in the end, these wouldn’t even appear in the movie at all.

This was ultimately very different from the way Yuan Ye did things. Though Yuan Ye was disgusted by He Sai and his team, he was the type of person to express these feelings publicly. He simply wouldn’t have agreed to add the new scenes in the first place. No matter how many difficulties plagued him, he wouldn’t comply. However, sometimes, the way he did things was wrong. This might have caused the entire film crew’s efforts to go to waste; his refusal to take a step back would have resulted in greater losses.

He had to admit that the director’s way of doing things was the smartest. After the movie became released and everything became set in stone, they could throw however many tantrums they wanted. There would be no fear of accidentally insulting the investors either. That wouldn’t matter anymore.

At the time, Yuan Ye had asked the director, “So why were you still so serious about filming those scenes? All that work for nothing.”

“Not for nothing.” Jiang Linchuan glanced at him and shook his head. He scoffed at himself, “There are too many changes during movie making. If I’m unable to edit the scenes out in the end, I’ll have to add them in.”

Yuan Ye asked, “What’s the probability that you won’t be able to edit them out?”

Jiang Linchuan answered, “Very small.”

For this small probability, the entire film crew, composed of over two hundred people, worked continuously for more than a month. The amount of money thrown into the pit didn’t even make a clink.

Fang Shaoyi probably knew the truth from the beginning, but he didn’t say anything. After, Yuan Ye remembered the times that Fang Shaoyi had told him to go watch the rough edits made by the director. Yet Yuan Ye himself had never been interested, so hadn’t ever taken these opportunities. Later on, he mentioned once that he wanted to watch it, but the director changed the subject and didn’t bring him along to the viewing. Thus, until the end of filming, Yuan Ye hadn’t known that his worries had been useless. The director had actually never wanted to ruin the script that, in Yuan Ye’s eyes, was already completely ruined.

There was no actual right or wrong. If forced to answer, Yuan Ye would even say that the director had been right. He had been doing his best to protect his movie. Previously, Yuan Ye had said that he had lost the most basic qualities of a cinephile; he now needed to take these words back. He still had the basic qualities of a cinephile, that passionate desire for movies. He hadn’t wronged his own film.

But this was too different from Yuan Ye’s personal moral principles. He even felt that this way of doing things was somewhat absurd and wild.

Fang Shaoyi had previously said that Yuan Ye’s moods weren’t a secret from him. He could feel whenever there was something in between them just from a gaze. After, though the two of them didn’t meet up, they didn’t stop texting or calling each other. They also seemed quite normal.

But Fang Shaoyi instantly knew that there was something off about Yuan Ye after he walked out of the airport. He had been a bit strange these past few days. Eventually, Fang Shaoyi guessed the reason.

Yuan Ye didn’t change his attitude when talking to him, almost as if nothing had happened. Thus, Fang Shaoyi didn’t ask him any questions.

The day prior to leaving for France, Yuan Ye called. He asked Fang Shaoyi if he had finished all the necessary preparations in the past few days.

Fang Shaoyi answered that he had.

Yuan Ye’s voice sounded very calm, but also a bit gentle. Through the phone, he told Fang Shaoyi, “Don’t worry. I’ll accompany you.”